BLISS
BLISS Opera Australia at the Sydney Opera House, March 12-30, 2010. Photography Brett Boardman. (NB) See the news item “More Bliss” for an opportunity to meet OA’s stars.)
A NEW Australian opera is a rare and thrilling thing, yet with the exceptions, in recent memory, of Batavia, Voss and Madeline Lee they have been disappointing at best and excruciating at worst. How wonderful then, that Brett Dean composer, Amanda Holden libretto, Neil Armfield director, Peter Coleman-Wright star of the show, and Brian Thomson designer have pulled off the feat of turning Peter Carey’s 1981 novel into a stand-alone work of art and entertainment.
It may have something to do with the long gestation of Opera Australia’s latest baby (10 years) from Simone Young’s commission of the piece from Brett Dean, through the vicissitudes that have beset the company since her untimely departure to its triumphant first night on March 12. It was no rush job; the composer and librettist had plenty of time to refine and refine and distil and distil. What they have achieved is the essence of the novel and the essence of its time (in actuality the late 70s) and the essence of its milieu – the Australian advertising industry.
At the same time, the delay between drawing board and curtain up has seen such leaps forward in technology that it can now be visually produced in a way that would have been unimaginable and impossible just a decade ago. The stage design of Bliss is arguably one of the finest of Brian Thomson’s already illustrious career.
An opera is its orchestra, performers and story, however, and director Neil Armfield, with conductor Elgar Howarth has spun them all into two hours and 50 minutes (including an interval) of enthralling music and theatre.
Bliss is an ironic concept for Harry Joy (Coleman-Wright), an ad man who, like so many high-powered fellas, has a heart attack at a moment of supreme (business) triumph. He dies briefly and when he is revived, he’s had an epiphany and wants out of the corruption, venality and immorality he suddenly sees in his business. He wants to give it all away and do something useful. His wife (Merlyn Quaife) and offspring, bratty high schoolgirl Taryn Fiebig and drug-dealing son David Corcoran are understandably appalled. As are his colleagues and employees, among them Barry Ryan and Kanen Breen (so good in a sleazy and, for once, non-comic role); Henry Choo, Milijana Nikolic and Shane Lowrencev.
Encouraging the reborn Harry in his Utopian intentions is a delicious tart with a heart of gold, Honey (Lorina Gore also a stand-out performance). Harry hires her for an evening’s hanky panky in New York but instead she becomes his downfall and salvation.
One of the most effective and dramatic sequences in Bliss occurs when Harry is incarcerated in an asylum by his family – because of course he must be bonkers to want to give away the life and style of the high-rolling ad man. It’s here where the always terrific OA Chorus shows what it can do not only as singers but as actors too. The scene is disconcerting, chilling and all too authentic.
To date, Brett Dean has been known as a top rank viola player and composer of mainly instrumental music. Bliss is his first opera and his affinity with the human voice is wondrous to hear. The music is difficult for the singers nevertheless and is by turns lyrical, dramatic and texturally rich. The detail in the orchestration is also witty, apposite and finely wrought. The same can be said for Amanda Holden’s libretto. Her ear for the colloquial, the poetic and the laconic style of both Australian- and Carey-speak makes a delightful and satisfying vehicle for the characters and voices.
Peter Coleman-Wright is the apparently indefatigable star of the show, however, and is rarely absent from the heart of the action. As well as singing the role beautifully, he acts Harry Joy in all his bravado, bewilderment and battiness with both comedy and pathos. It’s a wonderful performance and he deserved his solo standing ovation on opening night – it won’t be the last.
Bliss is also one of those productions whose set could have been given its own ovation. Brian Thomson’s design is at once simple and complex: a box whose walls are actually giant ad screens on which are projected key moments and motifs via floor to ceiling banks of LEDs. Although somewhat unclear from the program, Thomson not only conceived the overall design but also the innovative LED design. (Chris Twyman executed the design and stage lighting is by Nigel Levings). When it comes to Helpmann and Melbourne Green Room awards for this year, I’d like to think the Thomson/Bliss design will feature prominently. Alice Babidges’s costumes – kinda 80s, kinda universal – are also excellent.
All in all, it was exciting and rewarding to witness the birth of an Australian classic and it’s to the credit of Opera Australia and incoming artistic director Lyndon Terracini that the risk has been taken and backed to the hilt. It travels to Melbourne after the Sydney season and then on to the Edinburgh Festival. In Hamburg, meanwhile, Simone Young has already programmed her own production and it will be seen there later this year. It’s a great start for the new baby and virtually guarantees that it won’t be the last time we see it. Hooray.
